Five mistakes GNU/Linux neophytes make

[matthew]

I thought this was a very easy to read and kindly written short intro that people new to Linux may appreciate so I'm sharing it.

http://www.linux.com/article.pl?sid=05/08/24/1836223

[weasel fierce]

Very good and informative, without being snarky.

I'd add "running as root" as well ;)

[GeneralZod]

I'd add "trying to install software by going to the manufacturer's website and trying to download stuff" - I see it all the time. I made a suggestion a while back that the Ubuntu devs give hints from the outset that installation of software is different (and in many ways, better!) under Linux - my initial proposition was to add an "Install Software" link on the desktop (which would bring up the flashier version of Synaptic that's under development), but this was rightly pooh-pooh'ed. I'm not sure if it went anywhere after that - I think the basic idea holds promise, but it's rather tricky to pull-off without adding clutter.



I'd add "running as root" as well ;)


Good grief, yes - I see this all too often, and no amount of persuasion as to the security benefits will sway these people. aysiu made a characteristically good analogy on this topic, but I can't find a link to it at the moment.

[WirelessMike]

Pretty Good, I agree. I don't necessarily agree with everything as stated in the article, however. Perhaps it is written the way it is for the sake of simplicity.

There are a couple statements made early on regarding both "Distro choice" and "Linux is free of charge" that I think are a bit misleading.


There are other desktop GNU/Linux distributions that are free of charge, but from them you don't get the same level of all-around desktop computing excellence that you do from the ones listed above.
I don't agree. I think Fedora Core and Ubuntu offer a level of "all-around desktop computing excellence" comparable to commercial distros.


Excellent software is worth paying for; few will attempt to argue with that notion.
While I agree with this statement, it implies (in context with everything else under "Linux is free of charge") that "excellent" software is commercial. Nowhere does the author suggest that there are tons of truly free OSS software that is "excellent" on the same level as comparable commercial software. I think it would be fine to mention that it is entirely possible to have a completely free OS with free applications that can perform on par, even for a beginner, with systems that integrate commercial apps.

I think the sections on partitioning, permissions and giving up are excellent. Overall, I found the article very informative. I just wish the author would have tried a little harder to break the commercial mindset.

[poofyhairguy]

I'd add "trying to install software by going to the manufacturer's website and trying to download stuff" - I see it all the time. I made a suggestion a while back that the Ubuntu devs give hints from the outset that installation of software is different (and in many ways, better!) under Linux - my initial proposition was to add an "Install Software" link on the desktop (which would bring up the flashier version of Synaptic that's under development), but this was rightly pooh-pooh'ed. I'm not sure if it went anywhere after that - I think the basic idea holds promise, but it's rather tricky to pull-off without adding clutter.


"Not cluttering the desktop" is like a prime directive around here. You will be happy to know that "add/remove programs" was added to Breezy's application menu....impossible to miss.

[sapo]

I think that the most common is this:


Giving up too early

Cause almost all windows users that try linux for the first time uninstall it after the first thing that then cant put to work ](*,)

Then they just blame linux for being difficult instead of blamming their ignorance ](*,)

[GeneralZod]

"Not cluttering the desktop" is like a prime directive around here.

So I discovered when I made the suggestion ;) In my defence, I'm more of a Kubuntu-er so I didn't realise how big a deal it was.



You will be happy to know that "add/remove programs" was added to Breezy's application menu....impossible to miss.


Just what the doctor ordered; glad to hear!

[occy8]

The size of this swap space should be no less than 512MB if you have 512MB or 1GB of RAM, and no smaller than 1GB if you have less than 512MB of RAM. You can of course make a larger swap partition than necessary, but it will not benefit you if all you're doing is desktop computing. If you have a lot of space on your hard drive -- more than 100GB -- it can't hurt to make the swap partition larger.

I found the comment on the size of the swap space interesting
I always thought double the ram and you're right any comment??

[egon spengler]

I think that the most common is this:



Cause almost all windows users that try linux for the first time uninstall it after the first thing that then cant put to work ](*,)

Then they just blame linux for being difficult instead of blamming their ignorance ](*,)

True indeed. I think the attitude with Windows is "I have no other choice, I have to make this work" whereas when people try Linux if it doesn't work straight away they can just give up because they still have Windows to fall back on.

To a degree I can see how it sort of makes sense. The thing is though I would bet a fair amount of these problems that cause people to instantly give up are probably not that serious to fix or could be solved with another distro (though I realise it would be a pain to keep constantly dling distros just to get hardware to work)

[matthew]

I found the comment on the size of the swap space interesting
I always thought double the ram and you're right any comment??
My opinion is that as memory is getting cheaper and people are installing more the swap file becomes less important. I have 1 Gb of ram and a 1 Gb swap partition that almost never gets used, and then only if I have like 10 programs running. So, I would recommend double the amount of your ram up to 1 Gb max.